So I had a Heart Attack ...

I very rarely take an intermission from my weekly BLOG centered on taking a second look at scripture; right now we are in the book of Luke.  But my personal testimony was amended this past week to including going through a heart attack, and I believe God deserves a praise report on this experience from top to bottom.  It began on December 1^st a Wednesday with a phone call from my wife on her way to work.  She had a car accident, and called me first thing, having been hit from behind with damage to our car, but way more importantly with pain in her back and neck.  So I at once began trying to help her any way I could.  Calls to 911.  Trip to the site.  Exchanging insurance information, waiting on the police report.  Then taking her to the CentraCare facility to be X-rayed and triaged and given pain shots, etc.  It took most of the day before we were driving home having addressed the crisis for my wife.  When only a few blocks from home, it hit me.  Both sharp and constant pain in my chest running down my left arm on a scale of one to ten, it was a traditional eleven.  But I finished the drive and retired immediately to my big yellow chair.  My whole life, I always do great in a crisis, and fall apart only after it is done.  I assumed this was that.

I have had pain like this before.  And I do things to not pay attention to it.  I work.  I watch TV.  I focus on my iPad.  Or in the worst of cases, I go to bed and hope that a long sleep will change the outcome when I wake up.  Thursday came, and my pain was better, down from an 11 to a 7 or 8.  I just assumed this was me getting better.  When Friday came, my pain was down to the 3 or 4 range and I assumed this entire incident was behind me.  As if you were unable to read between the lines already on what God deserves praise for, from here the interactions become even more unmistakable.  As it turns out, I had a heart test scheduled on Tuesday of this week (the day before my wife’s accident).  And a second different heart test scheduled at the hospital on Friday (the third day since it all began).  My wife had arranged to take me to this test and stay with me throughout it.  That heart test revealed (you guessed it), I was in the middle of an active heart attack.  One of my arteries was 100% clogged.  But miraculously, my heart had found “work arounds” from other veins/arteries in the area providing blood to that part of my heart for no explicable reason.  I was rushed from testing lab to ER (only spent 5 mins there), and was admitted to the Cardiac ward immediately.  The doctors who read my tests understood what was going on, but could not provide a real good explanation of it.

I was immediately given huge doses of aspirin, and nitro glycerin.  My interventionist was called and the next morning (Sabbath for those keeping track), they attempted to do a procedure where they go through my wrist, up my artery, and insert a stent into my clogged artery providing a sort of rubber hose bypass to get the blood going.  They managed to get a balloon in there to force it open; but could not place a permanent stent because the smallest stent was still too big for that particular artery.  So that means my artery was cracked open once by balloon, but the junk is still in it, and it could re-clog up at any time.  The plan of attack is now just heavy meds to try to clean it out that way.  Obviously, I am changing my diet, and trying to mobilize as best my back and remaining lack of breath, and lack of flow will permit.  I feel like a truck ran over me.  But I guess that is a common feeling when getting out of a hospital.

So back to God for praise.  My wife never left my side.  She even slept in my room in the hospital and I use the word “sleep” lightly as that rarely happens.  But she was not just “there”, she was praying for me, for my doctors, and the staff the whole time.  My two primary nurses (one day, one night) were outstanding.  I got the on call cardiac interventionalist, but he happened to be the best one in the entire department, very very experienced, and did the stents for my best friend, so I already knew of him.  The care at AdventHealth (formerly Florida Hospital) in Orlando, is second to none.  I had multiple EKGs, blood tests, and sonograms of my heart throughout my experience.  How I got the best people, at the time when just a little more delay might have killed me, is not coincidence, it is providence.  My whole experience was like a well-oiled machine.  You would have thought everything was planned in advance, choreographed, and then executed with flawless precision.  It was.  It just happened to be God’s playbook, unseen by us, but still carried out flawlessly.

So what happens now?  I am home.  My wife was given a week off to care for me.  She has.  I have been the subject of much prayer, and I am so grateful for that.  I welcome every prayer sent up on my behalf.  Even though I still feel like I was run over by a truck, and even though these meds will take a while to fix me, I know it is God who has the final say over me.  If I reclog up tomorrow and find myself passed away from this mortal coil, I will yet sing the praises of my Lord Jesus Christ.  I love my family.  I was able to see my baby granddaughter through all of this.  They snuck her into my room.  And her smiles light up a city.  That kind of medicine only God could have arranged.  You see they live in Los Angeles and decided to travel here only to see us without ever knowing these events would transpire.  God will decide when or if I am briefly parted from her, or my wife, or my family.  But while I am here, I will praise the Lord.  And I will try to continue to serve Jesus Christ with every second, and every breath I have left.  He does so much for each of us.  And everything He has done for me, overwhelms my heart, in no matter what state I find it.

My wife and I have found new passion in greeting each day with prayer to God, thanking Him for a new day of life, and then enumerating to Jesus the needs He already is way ahead of us on for others.  You can bet that precious baby granddaughter tops the list, but she is followed by our children, our parents, our families, and then each of the ones Jesus puts in our path.  My wife carries a long list there, and I am grateful we are still able to lift them up in prayer.  That is the least we can do, and perhaps the most we can do.  If you have time and would like to pray for my wife, I know she needs it.  As you may recall this whole incident began with a horrible car crash that actually accordianized the offending vehicle against the back of my wife’s car.  She spends so much time caring for me, I think she is ignoring her own needs, so once again I would welcome prayers for her graciously.  I hope you do not ever have to experience a car accident or a heart attack.  But I am beyond certain, that God has seen us both through this one.  I don’t know what I will be able to do going forward, but while I can, I hope to pray often.  If you have a need, please message me and let me know, it would be my honor to lift you up in prayer to my God who I have personal testimony hears and answers in His tender mercies.  Everything I have been through shows me that over and over again.

 

The Words, not the Source [part 2 of 2] ...

God did something nobody expected.  Often, when we focus on the story of the resurrection, we focus singularly upon Jesus, and that is the main part of the story worthy of our focus.  But it is not the entire story.  As we noted in our last study, women were the first to carry the gospel or good news of Jesus.  Mary Magdalene the first to be directly commissioned by Jesus to go and tell the others what she has seen and heard of the gospel, a personal testimony of which she alone could give account.  I wonder how many of our pastors today have an equal testimony to offer?  How many tell us about things, stories or events, but not the testimonies they have been a personal part of.  But as we also noted in our last study, too often people cling to their personal biases, and when the source of truth is not what we think worthy, or good enough, or appropriate, we reject the truth because of our judgment of the source of it.  This is why the priests of the days of Jesus largely rejected what Jesus had to say.  You see, Jesus was humble, from Nazareth, and had no formal training or endorsement.  How on earth could He possibly be right?  How on “earth” indeed.

So even the personal testimony of Mary Magdalene was not swaying the believers as yet.  But let us back the train up just a little bit.  Taking us back to the angel descending from heaven to the tomb of Jesus, the entire Roman company fell before that angel as dead men locked in fear they had never known.  Watching that stone roll away as nothing, watching those chains snap as tissue paper, watching that seal be broken in two as nothing.  And then out of the tomb emerges Jesus Christ in a brilliant light.  Imagine the fear and guilt that burns within the heart of each soldier there.  They had asked for proof of His divinity while torturing Him, never believing for a second in some Jewish version of God, in some Jewish version of Messiah of all power.  But here He walks right out of the tomb from death to life, by the power of His own will.  If there were ever a doubt in the mind of a Roman soldier about who Jesus was, and more importantly what Jesus was, that doubt vanished in terror at what each of them saw with their own eyes.  It was more than just the angel who descended from heaven to unlock the door and get their attention.  It was the risen Lord who walks out of the grave in a brilliant robe of light, by the power of His own will.

But there is something else.  Had this been Jupiter, or Mars, or some other form of any Roman idea of deity, where all their gods demanded obedience and sacrifice for favor; and should they fail to please their gods, they visited great destruction upon them.  Jesus is different.  Jesus is certainly God, He is proving that now is mind bending ways.  But the expression on His face is NOT one of anger.  Jesus is not looking for revenge.  None of them are hurt, not at all.  Jesus stares at them with such love in His eyes, that love breaks their hearts and tears at the very fabric of their souls.  Jesus is not angry and full of righteous fury.  He should be.  He deserves to be.  He should be wreaking revenge upon them and tearing the flesh from their backs, revisiting the crown of thorns driven deep into their heads, beating them, punching them, and finally driving spikes or spears deep into their flesh.  They have it coming.  They laughed at Him.  They did all this while laughing and spitting on Him.  They made fun of the shame of His nakedness.  They still had His stolen clothes in their possession.  Even though He seems not to care about any of this at all.  He is looking into each of them deeply, with a look of love that would break the hardest heart of stone.  And everything they knew, or thought they knew, was now going to change.

What the priests hoped to contain was now to backfire on them.  Instead of guards to keep Jesus in the grave, a full Roman detachment now moves from non-believer to personal witness of the resurrection of Jesus.  And it gets worse … for them.  More than just one grave opens.  And not just in one place.  All over Judea, specific graves tear themselves open at the call of Jesus, and patriarchs and prophets from the history of Gods people from Adam until Christ, begin to come forth at the call of Jesus.  A first fruits offering for God the Father.  These men and women who bear testimony to the divinity of Jesus will come forth and begin spreading the gospel about what has happened throughout Judea.  A personal testimony to a resurrection called by a living Lord, a risen Lord.  And when the ascension happens, these first fruits will ascend with Jesus to heaven forevermore.  Wakened from the sleep of death, and transformed into what we are all to become, perfect in the eyes of our Creator, who re-creates us thus as He intends us to be.  Now throughout all of Judea, the dead will also bear testimony to the divinity of Jesus the Christ.

The gospel message is beginning to explode.  Yet still the disciples are unaware of all of this.  They still congregate in fear in an upper room.  And fear crushes belief … for now.  Luke continues the story in chapter 24 of his letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  Picking up in verse 13 it says … “And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. [verse 14] And they talked together of all these things which had happened.”  Two of those disciples gathered in that upper room decide to strike out for a small village of Emmaus.  It could be they had family there to hide them.  It could be it was just friend.  But while they walked, they had much to talk about.  Rumors of Roman soldiers who give testimony as to a risen Lord, until the Priests could buy their silence with some story about sleeping on duty.  But if they were sleeping, they would not be bragging about it, because the penalty for that was death.  So you know some small fortunes must have changed hands to keep them alive and quiet as to the real truth.  And still the truth was leaking out.  Then even more rumors about past prophets arisen, maybe one of them was supposed to be in Emmaus.  Then the testimony of the women.  They claim to have seen angels.  They claim the angels spoke of the Lord as among the living, a risen Lord.  Could it be?

Luke continues in verse 15 saying … “And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. [verse 16] But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.”  And once again God does something we did not expect.  And He does it in a way we did not expect.  These men did not expect Jesus but here is Jesus.  Yet their eyes are “closed” in such a way they are unable to see Jesus for who He really is.  Ever wondered if you have encountered Jesus and did not recognize Him for who He is?  Ever wondered why?  Why would Jesus appear to us and keep us from recognizing Him?  Perhaps because the words matter, the truth matters, and source is less important.  Our favorite religious preachers are capable of getting the message wrong.  And the homeless man on the street is capable of getting the message right, even when we are not comfortable with it.  It is the truth that matters.  Truth will not disagree with truth that came before it, for truth cannot change.  But sometimes truth will shatter our interpretations of truth.  Take these two disciples for example.  They believed the Messiah would come and end Roman oppression.  But Jesus did not do that.  They believed Messiah could be the very Son of God, and Jesus did that.  But then Jesus was tortured and killed, how could God allow Himself to go through that.  The truth was consistent.  But our interpretations and expectations were simply completely wrong.  And perhaps Jesus would shield the eyes of these disciples to first correct their beliefs, founded in the truth of scripture, before He revealed Himself.  Let them accept the correct truth of scripture, not the incorrect expectations of our past.

Luke continues in verse 17 saying … “And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? [verse 18] And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?”  Luke reveals one of the two disciples was Cleopas, although not one of the twelve he may well have been one of the 70 and had been with the others in the upper room to hear what was going on.  Jesus asks them what they are talking about and why they are so sad.  Cleopas asks this stranger if effectively he has been living under a rock?  How could he not know what was going on in Jerusalem this past weekend?  Luke continues in verse 19 saying … “And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: [verse 20] And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. [verse 21] But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. [verse 22] Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; [verse 23] And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. [verse 24] And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.”

Jesus asks the two disciples “what things” in order to probe from them what they have heard, and deeper what they believe.  Cleopas and his companion begin with a description of Jesus, a “prophet” mighty in word and deed before God and all the people.  It is here where the foundation of their faith just did not quite go far enough.  The story of prophets come to an end.  The story of God does not.  Have you ever considered that the problems you have in life, or in your relationship with God come because your faith just does not go quite far enough.  You trust God.  But do you trust God a little, or completely?  You believe in God, but believe a little, or with everything you have?  Put it this way, do you trust and believe, even when things make no sense to you, even when it is not logical, even when it looks stupid to do so?  Maybe your life is coming up short, because the foundation of your faith has had some artificial limit you set for it.  Many believe as long as it makes sense.  Many will love others, as long as others love them back.  But loving the stinky, the repellant, the difficult is just too hard.  And so we live lives of mediocrity, content to have a notion of God within us, but never giving Him everything.

Then Cleopas continues telling of the betrayal of Jesus by the chief priests and rulers.  And these two disciples believed Jesus would have redeemed Israel.  Not from sin mind you, but from the Romans.  But it is the third day since all of this took place and Israel is still under Roman rule and Jesus was killed.  But then, the story should have taken a turn for the better.  Strangely, it did not.  Cleopas tells of the women who “had seen a vision of angels”.  Again their faith was not large enough to embrace the truth of what the women said, it was no vision, it was an encounter.  But the angels said He was alive.  Even though the men who went to the same grave found everything as the women had said, but did not find angels.  We need men to prove out what the women said?  We refuse to embrace the truth, because we can only accept the words when it comes from a source that meets with our standards.  And in so doing, we join our Pharisee forefathers and reject the Truth of Jesus, for what good thing could ever come from Nazareth?  And sometimes our accepted sources are just like the men who went to the same grave, and saw not.  The Truth was right there, it came from the mouths of the women, it was the truth.  The men could not give testimony to it, because they did not embrace it.

And our biases are not just a male / female thing.  They extend to age-ism.  Someone is too young, or too old to be a proper source of truth.  Too new in the faith.  From a different denomination or brand of Christianity to have a message from God for me.  Our biases extend to race.  We refuse truth because the source does not share our racial experiences or past.  Our biases extend to wealth.  Surely the very poor or the very rich could never really understand the Truth of God, in a message for us.  The poor are too lazy.  The rich are too spoiled and greedy.  And so Jesus must disguise Himself in order to get through to us, and we so biased, are not even willing to hear Jesus because He does present Himself in “right package” for us to pay attention to.  But it has never been the package that matters.  It has always only been the message that matters.  If the message is truth, then it is truth.  Because it comes from the lips of a sinner or saint does not make truth less true.  Nor can it make a lie more true.  It can however, make a lie look more appealing, when it comes from a package that is appealing to our biases.

Jesus listens to the whole story of the gospel already laid out by these two followers, who despite saying it, have yet to believe it.  Then Luke continues in verse 25 saying … “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: [verse 26] Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? [verse 27] And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”  “Fools”, a word Jesus does not use lightly.  And yet are we any different?  We have all the truth we need in front of us, preserved at great cost in the Bible we now want to throw away as nothing but stories.  And yet the first thing Jesus does to prove Himself, is NOT a great revelation of divinity and power, but instead just a walk through of the scriptures taught the right way.  Jesus wipes out the bad interpretations.  Jesus shows them in the printed word, everything that would come to pass exactly as it has.  He reveals what was there all along.  If we were willing to let go our ideas of certainty we might have found it from the beginning.  If we were willing to let the past go, we might have seen what God was trying to show us in the present and for the future.  Trusting God first, letting Jesus lead, letting Jesus teach our hearts and minds.  Jesus was validating the message of the women who carried that gospel to them, validating it through scripture.  What was true is still true.

This conversation had changed.  While they still did not recognize Jesus in physical form, there was something distinct about what this man was saying.  Luke continues in verse 28 saying … “And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. [verse 29] But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. [verse 30] And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. [verse 31] And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.”  Jesus pretends as if He has farther to walk.  But the two disciples are eager for Him to stay the night.  So He agrees.  Sometimes Jesus likes to be asked for things.  Sometimes our prayers accomplish just that.  Our prayers teach us what we really want, or perhaps should want.  Jesus stays with them.  He visits with them through the evening.  And when supper comes, He takes the bread and blessed it as He had done thousands of times before, and broke it and gave it to them.  And at that moment their eyes were opened, and they saw what was there right in front of them all along.  It was Jesus.  Jesus was alive.

Luke continues in verse 32 saying … “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? [verse 33] And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, [verse 34] Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. [verse 35] And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.”  And Luke reveals the name of the other disciple here along the way as Simon.  He is not specific as to whether this was Simon Peter, or Simon the former Zealot (probably the latter).  But now Cleopas and Simon talk about how their hearts burned within them as Jesus had opened the scriptures to them the right way along their journey.  They became so excited, they left to run back to the upper room, braving the night.  For fear had departed, they had been with Jesus.  The coming of Jesus into your heart will displace the fear you might otherwise carry.

They burst into the upper room, startling everyone there quite a bit.  And the first words out of their mouths was the same as that of the women who preceded them.  The Lord is risen indeed.  He appeared to both Simon and Cleopas along the way to Emmaus and at dinner breaking bread as He always did, in the same manner and habits.  The first two male disciples to carry the gospel were not Peter and John still locked away inside the upper room fighting incorrect perceptions, sadness, and fear.  But were instead Cleopas and Simon who had left the safety of the upper room to travel to small village called Emmaus.  Have you ever wondered if God is waiting for you to take action first?  To leave the safety of your home or church pew, in order to join with you in your mission.  God may radically redirect what you were intending to do.  The women went to ordain a dead body with spices and ointments, that task of love was not needed or finished, a greater task of carrying the gospel was assigned instead.  These two men went to Emmaus for whatever reason, and they barely stayed there, a greater task of carrying the gospel back to the others was something that called them past their fears.  It does not matter what you set out to do.  It matters what you may find God assigns you to do, even if it is something completely different then what you intended, and something totally different than anything you would have ever thought of on your own.  But the point is, your first action out the door is required, before those assignments are ever presented.  You need to be moving.  Stepping out in faith.  Then listen, follow, and do what God leads you to do.

When we finally embrace the truth, the gospel is opened to us.  When our humility trumps our pride, the Truth is able to break down the barriers we have erected for it, and the gospel is opened to us.  Are you brave enough, and humble enough, to hear past the biases you have long carried to the voice of God calling just to you, with a message He has just for you.  Its there.  God is not silent.  Can you listen, in spite of what you might think about the source, or the package it may come in? …

 

The Words, not the Source [part 1 of 2] ...

High Priests of the ancient Jewish religion were always men, and men of the Levite tribe (with a few exceptions).  In fact, the priesthood overall was made up of men, scribes were men, and the Sanhedrin were men.  This was Jewish tradition since Moses until now.  If you were to seek out the word of God in the times of old, you would generally find it in men.  But that was then, this is now.  Not the days of you and I, but I am referring to the days of Jesus Christ.  In fact, one of the first people on planet earth to be told the good news of the gospel was a devout young woman named Mary.  She was told by an angel.  And it was confirmed by the Holy Spirit.  During the time of the silence of the father of John the Baptist, it was his very old wife Elizabeth, who had to recount the story of the gospel, and the role their son John (the baptizer) would soon play in it.  The coming of the Messiah was the bridge between the old religion and the new.  The need for Jewish sacrifice and symbolism was coming to an end.  The need for a singular Temple in which to perform rituals and rites was coming to an end.  And the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ was about to explode.  And the new gospel, the gospel of Jesus, was to include women in just as many proportions as it did men.  The new church was to look like the entire human family, not just the male side of it.

It is perhaps the most ironic phenomenon that during the time of Jesus, the Truth of the word of God could only be found from His lips.  Had you sought truth from the High Priest in the days of Jesus, you would have found only grievous errors, lies, hypocrisies, and a doctrine that would lead to the very death of Jesus the Son of God in a vain effort to preserve the ways of the past.  You would have been better off seeking truth from Mary the mother of Jesus, or Mary Magdalene the redeemed of Jesus, or Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus who sat at His feet, or Martha who served Him, or Joanna, or from any number of women who stood by Jesus throughout His ministry.  The woman at the well of Samaria who becomes one of the greatest evangelists recorded in scripture for the cause of Jesus Christ.  The woman who merely touched the hem of His garment for healing and started a trend in that day that would rival the greatest of social media trends in our own, and had nothing but her own personal testimony to see it spread.  The new church would be filled with women commissioned by faith, and by calling, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And the only truth that mattered was the story of Jesus.  And the only power behind that testimony was what Jesus did for you.  “Who” you were, did not matter at all, “what” you said was the difference between the past and the future.

But this change in church composition, and roles, would put many a soul to the test both in those days and in our own.  Throughout all of time, listeners have been unable to shed their own bias to the hearing of the truth, because the source from which it comes is not appealing to them.  The priesthood could not accept the truth from the mouth of Jesus, because He came from Nazareth, looked too plain and simple, had no social elitism; seemed more like a hippie than the Son of God.  Jesus baptized.  Jesus preached.  Jesus did the things he should have needed clearance and endorsement of the church of the past to do, but Jesus had no such clearance or endorsement.  Jesus did His own thing.  And the church of the day refused to hear it.  And if the ways of the past would not hear the Truth from the mouth of Jesus the Son of God, why on earth would they hear it from the mouth of broken down fisherman, societal rejects, and God forbid, women?  They would not.  Is it any different today? 

But as further testimony to the truth of the Bible, its author’s reveal the humiliations of the truth in what they write, not just the glory stories where everyone was a hero, and no one made any mistakes.  The first gospel commissions would be examples of just such stories.  Luke offers us one couched in the greatest world event we will ever know, the resurrection.  Luke writes to his friend about what we believe and why in the last chapter of his gospel, the 24^th chapter beginning in verse 1 it states … “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.”  When Luke uses the word pronoun “they” we get all warm and fuzzy and just assume this group is a mix of men and women, followers of Jesus intent on completing the preparation of Jesus’ burial that had been interrupted by the Sabbath falling on Friday evening at sunset.  But that is not quite true.  It was a group of folks, but it was only women, no men at all.  Firstly, men did not often prepare the dead as in Jewish tradition this was a very unclean work and required them to isolate themselves from society afterwards.  It was something like changing a toxic diaper that made you unclean for a while.  Women were just more willing to perform this duty, for love would drive them to it.

But the real truth behind the absence of men was set more in fear than anything else.  Now that Jesus was dead, killing his disciples, his closest followers in general was sure to be the next step of the angry Sanhedrin in order to stamp out all the loose ends and put the story of Jesus to death fully and finally, once and for all.  So the disciples were not out preaching in the streets, they were hiding in an upper room, afraid to venture one foot outside those shut doors.  Women faced all these same fears too.  And in addition, knew that if they were taken by enemies, they would be raped in the course of their torture, and still wind up enduring the same death their male counterparts would face in a situation like this.  Romans after all, had little sense of morality or respect, especially of Jews.  So when this company of women ventured out to complete the anointing of the body of Jesus, they had absolutely no idea what they would face or find in the process.  And what they found did nothing to calm their fears, at least at first.

Luke continues in verse 2 saying … “And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. [verse 3] And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.”  First, these women had no idea there would have been such a great stone rolled in front of the tomb to seal it.  But there it was having been rolled away from the door.  The great iron chains that once bound it to the tomb were snapped like so much tissue paper.  The Roman seal that promised death to any who would dare to break it was snapped in two without any hesitation or thought for safety.  And beyond all this, there was evidence of a great company of soldiers here guarding this place.  The remnants of campfires nearby with coals still orange with glow of heat from them.  Scattered Roman weapons, shields, armor, and soldiers clothing scattered about as if the entire company were caught by surprise and had themselves fled in terror.  But there was no signs of a battle, just the great stone rolled away (something women could have never done), and evidence of a terror that sent Romans running for their lives.  Jews could never have done this.  Romans were used to fighting Jews, even Zealots.  If it had been a battle, there would have been at least some blood and much less fear.  But there was not.

Beyond all of this, these women entered the tomb to do their work, and did NOT find the body of Jesus within.  What could have possibly happened?  Who could have done this, to take a dead body, even the body of Jesus, and for what purpose?  Hadn’t Jesus suffered enough, hadn’t they?  Their minds raced as Luke continues in verse 4 saying … “And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: [verse 5] And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?”  While their minds yet raced about where was Jesus, and why; all of the sudden two great men appear before them in shining garments.  These were no Romans.  Romans do not appear out of thin air.  These were no members of the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin have never worn robes of brilliant white light.  These were something way more than men, they were angels, perhaps cloaked to look as harmless as angels are capable of looking, but still pretty intense to a group of women already expecting the worst.

But then the words of the angels reach into their hearts and sound like deep music from within them.  The truth matters, the words matter, the source not so much.  Jesus is plainly gone.  And the angels have asked them, why do you seek the living among the dead.  This means Jesus is not dead.  This means Jesus is alive.  But how could this be?  Luke continues with the testimony of angels in verse 6 saying … “He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, [verse 7] Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. [verse 8] And they remembered his words,”  Jesus is not here.  He is RISEN.  Those words sink deep into the hearts and minds of every woman in this company.  They drop the spices prepared for His burial.  They don’t need them anymore.  Then the angels remind them of the very words of Jesus Himself about all of this.  He will be delivered to the cross, and be raised again on the third day.  Today is the third day.  Today Jesus has risen again.  The greatest news that could ever be told to human ears happens first NOT in the upper room to his cowering disciples.  But instead in an empty tomb where women have braved their own fears to come and finish the work of love they must do for the body of their Lord.  But there is no body here.  There is only the trumpeting of angel voice in their very souls proclaiming a Risen Lord.  After Lazarus they each know what this means.  Jesus is alive.  Jesus said all this would happen.  Their minds open up and they remember every nuance of His voice when Jesus uttered these very words.

The gospel starts here in an empty tomb.  The first commission begins here with a group of nothing but women.  They set out for the upper room.  But Mary Magdalene tarries.  Luke misses this part of the story, but the heart of Mary breaks at all of this and she begins to weep.  The news is just too much.  It is just too good.  Seeing a Man she mistakes as the gardener she begs to know from Him where they have moved the body.  Fear prevents her from believing what angels have already told her.  But the Man is Jesus and He calls her by name.  Now it is beyond real to her.  Now, nothing can make her doubt ever again.  Jesus tells her not to touch Him just yet, because He has delayed ascending to His Father at this point, to see if the sacrifice is enough.  He delayed for love of Mary.  He delayed for love of each of us.  He would have stopped to heal our broken hearts as surely as He longs to heal them today.  The news is solid.  The news is good news therefore gospel news.  Mary leaves the garden racing back to the upper room.  She will be behind the group, but has the same story to tell, this time from Jesus Himself.  The new church will begin with women.

Luke picks up again in verse 9 saying … “And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. [verse 10] It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.”  Note what Luke states, they returned from the empty grave and told the whole story to the other eleven, AND to all of the rest.  It is here where Luke finally reveals it was “other women” who were with them at the grave.  We have no idea how many men and women were back in that upper room.  There could have been many.  We do know some of the women by name that gave this testimony.  Once again, the first carriers of the gospel bore a message from angels, backed by personal testimony of sight and sound.  And once again they are not believed by the men closest to them.  The men who heard the same words as the women did by Jesus Himself.  The men who saw the work of Jesus alive in these women, as Jesus had been alive in themselves as well over the last 3-4 years.  As Joseph the fiancée of Mary was ready to put her away until an angel spoke directly to him, so now the disciples were no more inclined to hear the words of these women and their testimony of this gospel, and of the truth, because of their own bias.

They resisted because these were women.  Luke says in verse 11 saying … “And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.”  Imagine, the gospel rejected, by those who should have been the first to accept it.  Because it looks to them like the idle tales of women chattering.  Some girl’s dream who is just unable to face the hard truth of the death of Jesus, which the men all had seen albeit from a distance much farther than that of the women.  But the gospel begins in humility.  The gospel grows in humble soil, and is stamped out upon the rocks of our pride.  You must humble yourself to hear the message of God to your soul, as that message may come from someone else, someone you deem unworthy, or not good enough to carry it.  But on the heels of the group of women who have brought this testimony to all this assembly of people comes Mary Magdalene running as fast as her feet would carry her.  She is ablaze.  She is on fire.  She repeats the story of the other women and now adds a new personal chapter of her own.  For she has met Jesus risen for the grave for herself.  She heard His words to come to tell them all.  She knows He is alive.  She has just spoken with a risen Jesus.  And she will not be dissuaded. 

While there are far more than 2 witnesses to all of this, the personal testimony of Mary Magdalene has begun to kindle a fire in the room.  Luke continues in verse 12 saying … “Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.”  Peter cannot take this anymore.  He decides to run to the grave and look at these things for himself.  John goes with him.  And they find exactly what the women have said, exactly as they have relayed it.  Except there are no angels in this place now.  Where the women went away with a gospel commission, Peter and John go away empty now wrestling with their own doubts and faith and memories.  The gospel begins in humility.  The women were humble enough to heed the words of the angels.  The men do not expect to find those words to be true, even though every evidence is as the women described it.  A great stone rolled away, something the women could never have done.  Great chains of iron that once bound the stone to the grave broken like tissue paper.  A Roman seal promising death, broken in half without a moment’s hesitation.  A camp deserted in fear outside the tomb with Roman leftovers everywhere.  An empty tomb with grave linens not scattered about, but folded neatly and left on the bench within the tomb itself.

Men left that place WITHOUT the gospel, because up to this point men had refused to embrace the gospel.  The women carried it.  The men did not.  The new church was here.  It began on Friday when the whole sacrificial system was fulfilled and torn down in the death of Jesus Christ.  It rested on the Sabbath day as Jesus had created and once again did; even in the work of our salvation, He rested.  And now on Sunday, the third day of the new church, Jesus rises and leaves the tomb with neatly folded clothes.  A robe of light will now once again cover our Lord.  In the new church, not like in the old one, the first folks to carry the gospel will be a company of women.  And the first soul to see a risen Jesus, even before Jesus resumes the work of our salvation and verifies the sacrifice with His Father God, is Mary Magdalene.  Mary is given the first gospel commission by Jesus Himself.  She is ablaze.  She carries fire in her testimony because it is a personal one to her.  No one can make her doubt ever again.  But whether we believe the message of God carried through her is up to us.

Are you ready to hear what God is trying to say to you, ignoring the source, and closely examining the words for the Truth He is trying to convey?  I don’t care what you believe about whether women should be pastors or not (despite my belief that Jesus is very clear about this).  Nor do I ask what you believe about any particular doctrine of your church or mine.  But I do ask - are you hearing the message of God that is intended specifically and only for you at this very moment of your life?  You were not meant to drift from day-to-day, following proscribed patterns of prayer, and fellowship, and study, but only to keep drifting from one day to the next.  Doing what you do, over and over again, but never really hearing what God wants you to do, what God will enable you to do if you but seek Him, and follow His instruction in your life.  To let God lead, we must start in humility, abandoning our ideas as the foolishness they are, and letting God retrain us how to think, how to love, and what to want.  In the process of our transformation will come a work each of us is intended to perform.  It will be different for each of us, as we are all different from each other.  So I cannot tell you what your work will be, but I can tell you, that you have one, and when you find it, and follow it, you will never be happier in your life.

Scripture offers us guardrails.  But only a personal relationship between you and Jesus will get you into the process of transformation, and engaged in the work of your particular life.  And if God sends you a message, meant just for you, examine the words, not the messenger, and find the peace Jesus has in store for you, even if in the middle of the raging seas well beyond your control.

And Luke was not yet done with the story of our first church and what it means to discard the messages Jesus has sent us …

 

Everybody keeps Sabbath, even God ...

Jesus has just died.  The symbolic religion of the past is now over.  The penalty of the Law has been fulfilled in fresh divine blood on that splintery cross.  And the very first thing Jesus Himself does is not to resurrect Himself from a blood stained cross, but instead to rest throughout the entire Sabbath Day.  Time enough to begin His resurrection on the first day of the week after this rest, but now on the first official day of the new religion, of Christianity, Jesus will set the example by resting, even from the work of our very salvation on the Sabbath He created before sin, and intends to honor long after sin has finally and fully been consumed.  No work for Jesus on Sabbath, even the work of saving us, today He will sleep.  Not just Jesus follows this pattern, the pattern of His entire life of example in our world, but ALL of the followers of Jesus rest on this special Sabbath Day as well.  Right there in the middle of Jerusalem, with the much loved Messiah resting in a tomb Luke will describe in this section, everyone else takes time away to rest on the Sabbath.  No one anoints His body to the full extent desired because the Sabbath sunset on Friday evening comes and interrupts that action.  For the Sabbath, Jesus takes His rest, God rests, and so does every Christian alive at the time.  Work will resume after the sunset on Saturday evening in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  The work of resurrection, of the gospel, of angels, of verifying the sacrifice that will save the world.

What happens to the bodies of crucified criminals is not done with much care.  Normally thrown into a mass grave and burned for sanitary purposes.  But before the bonfire, hungry animals, dogs, etc. come and chew on the loose flesh.  It is horrific.  And that is what is expected for those who die in such a manner.  Joseph of Arimathea begins thinking about it.  He has seen the darkness.  He has felt the earthquake.  He may have even been at the Temple when the Passover lamb was set free and the curtain tore from top to bottom.  These signs can only mean one thing.  And while Joseph had longed to see the Kingdom of God enter this world through the vehicle of the Messiah, and Joseph knew in his heart that the Messiah was Jesus, Joseph was not going to let the end of the story of Jesus be one of a mass grave, dog chews, and fire.  Joseph carried the same wrong beliefs as everyone else about the role and expectations of the Messiah.  But Joseph loved Jesus, and was not there at His trial because Joseph would have never agreed with the verdict.  And now what Joseph could do, even if was only for the body of Jesus, Joseph was bound and determined to do, no matter what it might cost him personally.

Luke reminds us of these events picking up in chapter 23 of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why starting in verse 50 it begins … “And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counseller; and he was a good man, and a just: [verse 51] (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. [verse 52] This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.”  It is humility that begins it all.  Joseph was an esteemed member of the Sanhedrin.  A man of rank and esteemed counsel.  Except in the matter of Jesus, for Joseph could not help loving Jesus.  The power of the love of God simply overwhelmed Joseph, and Joseph had chosen not to resist it, but to embrace it.  You could choose that too if you wanted.  Members of the Sanhedrin ruled the nation as much as Rome would allow.  They were mostly men of wealth and pride.  They never humbled themselves no matter what.  But not so for Joseph.  Joseph, an older man, prostrates himself on the marble floors before Pilate weeping and begging for the body of Jesus.  Pilate is awestruck.  He does not know how to react.  Pilate has seen many men beg before, but never one not on trial, never one who is from the Sanhedrin.  It is as if Joseph is poor.  It is as if the heart of Joseph is so broken he could care less what anyone thinks of him.  The story of Joseph in such humility before Pilate is sure to get out (Pilate will help it if he needs to).  And the whole of Jewish nation will know that even the powerful prideful Sanhedrin bows before the power and might of Rome.  What a miracle.  Jesus is dead and now this.  Who could have imagined?

Would you have done the same?  Can you do it now?  Is there someone you refuse to humiliate yourself before, in order to do for God what you alone might be able to do?  Some of us refuse to be so humbled as to wash one another’s feet during the ceremony of Communion.  Some refuse to be baptized.  Some to refuse to pray at meals.  Some refuse to ask for help, or for prayer.  All of us seem to carry some notion of pride, of a line we will not cross no matter what, no matter for who, even for God.  But Joseph obliterated all such lines on behalf of a dead Jesus who would not even know what he was doing.  Joseph sent his reputation into the shredder for a dead Lord.  He gave the wealth intended for himself to a Rabbi from Nazareth now dead on a Roman cross.  There was no reward in it.  There was no gain to be had.  There was only the sting of criticism from fellow Jews mad that he would submit himself to Rome for any reason, let alone a dead Carpenter of no account.  But that was not how Joseph loved Jesus.  Joseph loved Jesus like the Son of God He was.  Everything begins with humility.

Luke continues in verse 53 saying … “And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.”  Pilate granted Joseph’s request.  It did not cost him anything.  Joseph was covering all the costs.  What was that to Pilate?  But to Joseph this apparently meant everything, which of course did not make any sense at all.  Jesus was clearly dead.  Joseph raced to the cross now, he and the others carefully took the body of Jesus down.  They gently removed the nails and spikes from Jesus’ hands and feet.  The Roman had already removed his spear at the moment he had thrust it in, now was only the wound of it that remained.  Joseph pricks his own fingers mixing his own blood with the head of Jesus as he must remove the vicious crown of thorns.  For that crown had been driven deep into the head of Jesus by taunting guards who drove it deeper with their taunts and tortures.  But now it had to be taken out.  They were not rushing, but they were moving as carefully and swiftly as they could.  Each person taking part in this would have to keep themselves isolated from others as Jewish law was very particular about touching the dead.  Everyone knew it.  But Sabbath was coming, and even this most important work will not complete before Sabbath arrives.

Luke continues in verse 54 saying … “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. [verse 55] And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. [verse 56] And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”  They managed to get Jesus down, get His body free of the instruments of Roman torture.  They wrapped Him in some burial linens.  And they took him to a tomb that no one had ever used before.  It was likely a tomb Joseph had prepared from himself, perhaps for his family if he had one.  But Jesus had need of something, and for Joseph only the best would do, Joseph could always have another tomb carved from the rocks later for himself.  They laid Jesus carefully in the tomb.  Meanwhile the women who had been there all along went home and started gathering and preparing spices they could anoint the body of Jesus with now that he was dead.  They had seen Jesus laid in the tomb.  And the Sabbath had arrived, so there was no time now to anoint His body.  So they went home and prepared as much as they could before the sun set.  Then like every other follower of Jesus, they rested on the Sabbath day.  Joseph would rest too.

But for those who did not follow Jesus, Sabbath rest was not to be part of the itinerary.  The priests and scribes responsible for the death of Jesus heard the stories of Joseph having obtained the body of Jesus.  They were furious.  Terror had quickly given way to anger.  Fear will never keep anyone in the kingdom nor is it a good tool to try to use to get them there.  These wicked priests would have preferred to see Jesus eaten by the dogs in a mass grave then burned.  Instead yet another prophecy was being fulfilled.  So rather than rest upon the Sabbath, they traveled to Pilate to complain and see what could be done.  Now the mind of Satan is much sharper than the human mind.  The followers of Jesus had forgotten the words of Jesus about being raised to life upon the third day.  But Satan had not forgotten, so these priests got it into their heads that they must at all costs keep the body of Jesus in that grave at least for three days.  Friday was nearly gone or gone now with sunset.  Saturday was here.  What was needed was fear at the grave site of Jesus.  An entire Roman detachment, 100 soldiers, and a centurion.  But beyond that, chains of heavy iron dragged across a huge round stone that would take many men just to move to the entrance.  And to top it off a great Roman seal that if broken represented death to any human that would dare.

And who would not keep Sabbath would be these priests and scribes who thought nothing of having someone else work for them on this holy day standing guard over Jesus.  And the Romans who had no concept of Sabbath stood watch over Jesus.  Frankly the Romans were more uncertain of the divinity of Jesus than perhaps the priests.  They had all seen the darkness, they had all been cast as dead men to the ground when the earthquake hit.  Perhaps for the first time in a long time they all knew fear.  They were all guilty.  And if guarding Jesus kept Jesus dead that would fine with them all.  And the priests were going to pay for it all, a condition Pilate was likely to require (Roman tax at its finest).  So while every member of the new religion of Jesus was quietly resting on Sabbath as their Lord was also doing.  Many leaders of the old religion who claimed to be the right one, thought nothing of committing murder, breaking the Sabbath, lying about everything, and funding anything of a criminal nature that needed to be funded.

The difference perhaps of a people who are led by Jesus and follow His example, and those who claim to be led by Jesus but do what they think is right in the name of God, just not the will of God, nor that of the example of Jesus even in these moments.  Many of us are so certain we know what we should do, and how we should do it – only to find when we examine the life of Jesus, what we are doing is far from what He did.  We worship on other days because we want to, but do not set aside the time Jesus made holy and asked us to remember, treating it like those Pharisees of old, doing what we think is needed for reasons we think are important, while Jesus rests in the tomb on the seventh day.  Many of us think nothing of employing others to do jobs we think are critical on Sabbath, and in doing thus, we deny them the blessing of Sabbath they should be enjoying with us.  Many of us watch, and fill our minds, with the same content we could consume any other day, that brings us not one inch closer to God.  We do not need to be dead to keep Sabbath holy, nor do we need to sleep from one end of it to the other.  But to love, we might want to start with humility, and ask God what He has in mind for us during His special time, and follow that leading rather than always thinking we know what is best.

I do find it interesting however, that the Christian church began with an ending of the old, and an ushering in of the new.  And the first new day, and first new action of the Christian church, was the celebration of Sabbath, which Jesus and all the followers of Jesus kept.  The work of our salvation resumed the next day on the first day of the week.  But Christianity did not begin on that day, it began on Sabbath.  That is the leading I must follow.

 

From Noon till Three ...

Abraham repeated.  Many of us may remember the story of Abraham and his son Isaac, when God tested Abraham to see if he would be willing to part with the thing he loved the most because God asked him to.  Some wonder why Abraham had to endure such a test.  What point did it serve?  But because it did happen, the Israelite nation had this story of faith in its ancestry for generation after generation to observe and wonder about.  So many would learn of this test of parting with what we love the most; trusting to God what does not make sense to us, but doing what God said, because God said it.  No one could imagine that the test was destined to be repeated.  But the next version of it was not to be a test of love for a human to pass, but instead the test our God Himself must pass if we were to be saved.  But in the case of our God, Jesus would not be spared at the last minute.   Jesus would have to die.  Our God would have to part with who He loved the most, in order to see us have a chance at redemption and reconciliation.  No angelic hand would be sparing “THE Lamb of God”, instead that angelic hand would be sent to spare the Passover lamb.  Three stories blending into one, with timing nothing short of divine.

As for timing, at the time of the death of Jesus, every periodic feast, or event, happened or culminated in that the same year.  The year of Jubilee for example, the once every 50-year event, when the slaves were set free all across the land of Israel, happened at the year of the death of Christ.  Yes there is a lesson there.  No slave was ever intended to remain a slave.  Not the ones bought and sold in ancient times, nor you and I who before Jesus were nothing but slaves to sin and self.  But beyond the year of Jubilee, if a feast happened once every 7 years or once every 12 years, it was due to happen in the year of Jesus’ death.  This timing would wind up drawing people towards Jerusalem in larger numbers than usual, particularly at Passover which was considered the most important event in Jewish religion.  If you were a freed slave you might want to attend this event for the first time as a freed person.  If you were a Jewish believer and were too poor to gather for the other periodic feasts, you would definitely choose to attend Passover in order to see the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, when the sins of the nation were laid upon the lamb who would be slain in sacrifice.  These events would happen at the rebuilt Temple directly in front of the Most Holy place where only the giant curtain would separate the two main chambers of the Temple.

Only the High Priest of the Jewish nation could dare to tread behind that giant dividing curtain on the Day of Atonement.  In fact bells were sown into the bottom of the garments of the High Priest in order for those outside to hear if he were still alive behind the curtain.  If the High Priest were still filled with sin behind this curtain he would be struck dead by the very presence of God.  And those outside would have to pull the dead High Priest out of the chamber using the ropes they would secure around his waist before he ventured in.  If instead they too ventured into that chamber there would have been a stack of bodies not just the one.  So this event was a bit terrifying in nature, as well as awesome in symbolism.  And keep in mind it was the very personal presence of our God (Jesus that is) who sat upon the mercy seat constructed upon the top of the ark of the covenant which resided in that most holy place.  These were not just idol traditions happening in empty chambers, but instead real events happening before the presence of a real God.  A real judge of our character.  A real mercy seat.  Taking away our real sins with the blood of the symbolic lamb.

But today was different.  Jesus the real lamb of God was hung on the cross outside of the city of Jerusalem on the hill called Mt. Calvary.  This time it was God the Father who was Himself enduring the test of Abraham repeated with no hope of an out at the last minute.  Instead it was a humble perfect lamb at the Temple of Jerusalem who was to gain a reprieve.  Luke picks up the events in his letter to his friend about what we believe and why in the 23^rd chapter starting in verse 44 saying … “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.”  Eclipse?  No.  Thunderstorm?  Not likely, a thunderstorm in the desert would have been unusual, but heavy rains, winds, lightnings, and thunderings would have driven casual spectators back into their homes, not allowed them to continue standing at the foot of the cross for three hours while Jesus hung in agony for our sins.  This all started at noon and lasted till three pm in our modern telling of time during the day.  This would have coincided perfectly with the ceremonies at the Temple to celebrate Passover.  You can imagine both audience and participants were certainly terrified as this darkness could hardly be seen as an omen of good.

But today was different.  Instead of bright noon day sun, a darkness of the sun refusing to shine, no moon, no stars, just a thick black dark.  It was very dark, perhaps not as bad as it was in Egypt during the plague of darkness, but this was miraculous darkness none the less.  Nature itself refused to look upon the death of its creator.  And our Father God must sit upon His throne and take no action to spare His Son, His most loved Son, the agony, pain, humiliation, naked degradation, and blood flow as it does from open wounds, while dying upon that cross.  Our Father God cannot reassure His Son, or comfort Him, or even be with Him in His agony.  Jesus must die and die alone separated from the presence of His Father.  Jesus cannot see through these events to know if they will be enough to satisfy the justice required by heaven’s law.  Will Jesus be forever stained by our sins so that the Father can no longer look upon Him?  After all, the entirety of the sins of our world are no small amount of sins, nor small amount of viciousness, nor selfishness we embrace nearly every day of our lives, refusing transformation and the freely offered love of God.  That is some weight Jesus must carry, even though He committed no sin at all.  And while God has all the power in the universe, He too must sit and watch His Son die the death we deserve.

Luke continues in verse 45 saying … “And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. [verse 46] And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”  So it is time for the pinnacle of the ceremony at Passover.  The hand of the High Priest is raised with a knife in it.  He like Abraham of old is set to bring the knife down and plunge it into the neck of the innocent lamb tied below upon an altar in the courtyard in front of the Most Holy place.  But like Abraham of old, before the High Priest can bring the knife down upon the lamb of that altar, an angel restrains his hands, and the lamb is spared, and the ropes fall away from that lamb and he gets up and runs away free back to his flock and his owner.  The People (both audience and priesthood) are amazed at this miracle, but before they can begin to process what has just happened further angels tear a hole in this dividing curtain from top to bottom.  The curtain falls away on the left and right and reveals not just a glimpse of the Most Holy place, but a full view of the entire chamber.  Everyone is looking in there, to a sight no one has ever seen and lived before this; an entire crowd of just normal Jewish believers.  For it is at this very moment that outside the city on a hill called Mt. Calvary, that Jesus is surrendering His spirit to God the Father, giving up the ghost, and dying on behalf of that nation and every other.

Today is surely different.  At the moment of his death there is an earthquake to shake not just this location, nor the nearby city of Jerusalem, but across the entire region of the middle east.  The whole area rumbles at the loss of innocent blood shed at our redemption and these earthquake waves are sent everywhere as a wakeup call to this event.  None will wonder if stories of it are true, for all will have felt it enough to terrify them at this moment in time.  His cross will be the epicenter.  People will be thrown to the ground, holding on to the ground in terror.  The scale of these miracles and scope of those affected are not just limited to small hill outside of Jerusalem but felt nearly everywhere, seen nearly everywhere.  Many have come from the far reaches of the earth to be here at this moment, perhaps most not even aware of what was going on at Calvary.  But they would search for answers behind the meaning of these things now.  Seeds were being planted across believers from the far corners of the earth, that would one day soon result in a harvest of new converts such as the world has never seen before.  Even in the heart of one who calls himself our enemy awakens recognition and conversion based upon what is taking place.

Luke continues in verse 47 saying … “Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”  A Roman in charge of this horror sees what is happening and knows what he has just been responsible to carry out.  Yet he does not shrink from the terrible truth, instead embracing it, and giving witness to it aloud.  Some versions of this have the Roman declare surely this was the Son of God (more than just a righteous man).  Keep in mind it is still dark outside from noon till three.  Keep in mind that earthquake happens at the moment of the death of Jesus and is felt everywhere.  Keep in mind the testimony of everyone at Passover will be of a spared lamb freed by angelic hands, and a curtain torn from top to bottom revealing an empty Most Holy place.  People inside the city start hearing of Jesus at Calvary, and want to see it for themselves.  They are there.  They want to see.

Luke concludes in verse 48 saying … “And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. [verse 49] And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.”  Travelers, pilgrims, believers, soon to be believers travel out to Calvary to see for themselves if the rumors of the death of Jesus are true, and to ponder what it means to them.  All of those disciples, and secondary disciples (the 70 selected by Jesus early in His ministry) watch these events from a safe-from-Roman distance and marvel at these events.  Lastly the women who are considerably braver than any of their male counterparts stand nearer the cross watching and weeping and wondering at the meaning of these events.  All of them must confront the error of their own beliefs.  The Messiah was NOT meant to end Roman oppression.  They were not going to be free.  They were going to remain where they were.  Their relief would come from sin, not from circumstances.  They would have to swallow hard to let go their own deep seated incorrect doctrines and acknowledge that Jesus was God, and God did something they did not expect.  Jesus died.  He allowed Himself to die.  He gave up His own life willingly.  He endured torture with no relief.  He hung naked allowing humiliation from a crowd of cruel religious leaders.  He endured all of it then died.  This was NOT something their Messiah was supposed to do.  But God did what they did not expect in a way they never expected.

Is it any different today?  We pray as if directing God to do what we want, what we expect.  But perhaps like those faithful of old, we must confront the idea that God does what He knows must be done, in things we did not expect, in ways we did not expect.  And we too must confront the error of our beliefs.  Jesus is bigger than what we believe.  His Truth is beyond our understanding of truth.  We are not the arbiters of truth, Jesus is, and Jesus alone.  For some back then, despite all the evidence, it was just too much to accept.  So they smote their breasts and went back to where they were staying.  For others however, the sadness of these events was just too overwhelming.  They too smote their breasts and returned home, but in mere sadness wondering what the Messiah was truly supposed to be, instead of what they had pigeon holed Him to be.  But to be clear it was the women who witnessed it all, endured it all, braved the danger of Roman assault and rape, and stood by our redeemer through the worst moments of His life.  For any who would dare to refute what the Holy Spirit might offer to a woman in the realm of spiritual gifts merely because she is a woman stands upon shaky ground.  For women were there.  Men were a good distance farther away.  There is lesson here for us, if we have the humility to accept it.

For three hours nature itself bore testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ.  These were not coincidences.  The angel in the Temple restraining the hand of the High Priest like Abraham of old was not a coincidence.  The tearing of the curtain by other angelic hands not a coincidence (nor the timing).  It was orchestrated.  It was timed.  It was intended.  The startled lamb freed from the altar had little understanding of what was going on or why, perhaps we have no better.  But these things were miraculously timed, to end the symbolism of the religion of the past, and usher in the religion of Christianity.  Sacrifices were done.  THE Sacrifice had been made.  No more symbolic blood need be shed, the purest blood of God Himself had been shed.  The world was ablaze with these events and even more would be coming.  Perhaps it is so even today just out of your sight.  Are you able to challenge what you believe?  What if God is doing something right now you did not expect, or doing it in a way you never expected.  Can you come to accept Jesus and let Jesus lead?  I hope I can as the true age of Christianity dawns.